1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to pattern recognition. More particularly, this invention relates to command recognition using data-driven semantic inference.
2. Background
As computer systems have evolved, the desire to use such systems for pattern recognition has grown. Typically, the goal of pattern recognition systems is to quickly provide accurate recognition of input patterns. One type of pattern recognition system is a voice recognition system, which attempts to accurately identify a user's speech. Additionally, one type of voice recognition system is a command or control recognition system. Command/control recognition systems allow a user to input voice commands and selections to the system rather than requiring use of a keyboard, mouse, or similar device.
Typically, the goal of command/control recognition systems is to accurately recognize verbal commands identifying system instructions. One solution to providing command/control interpretation systems is to use a finite state grammar model. Such a model requires the system designer to identify many different ways that each command or instruction could be worded (e.g., different ways in which a user could ask the system to identify the current time include "What time is it?", "What is the time?", "Tell me the time.", etc.). Each of these different ways is programmed into the system and, using the finite state grammar model, the particular grammar of each of these different ways the command could be worded is used in identifying the voice command input by a user. However, such systems are not very adaptable because they do not allow for additional ways to word instructions other than what is programmed into the system. Rather, the recognition process is limited by the grammar programmed into the system. Thus, such systems tend to be user-unfriendly because they typically require a user to memorize particular command phrases.
Thus, what is needed is an improved way to recognize commands.